Today we went SCUBA diving, again…back to The Fire Station at Pupukea. Along the way, we stopped at Malaekahana State Recreation Area to have a go at Goat Island.
Goat Island is more properly called Moku’auia. It is located just past the town of La’ie as you head toward Haleiwa along the North Shore. At low tide, the two hundred meters of water between the island and Malaekahana State Recreation Area can be waded, with depths ranging between calf and waist levels — but remember to bring reef shoes or dive booties.
One account of the island’s history is that a 19th Century lawyer housed two mistresses there, and proclaimed himself king of the place. Nowadays, the island is a bird sanctuary.
There is a nice crescent-shaped beach on the island’s west (leeward) side. Overall, it’s a good destination for a day at the beach.
After the island excursion, we continued toward Pupukea and stopped at Kahuku Land Farms, one of a handful of roadside fruit and vegetable stands on the North Shore. Here, we purchased a mango, a dragon fruit, some fried breadfruit on skewers, and some fried banana.
The fried banana was fantastic…incredible…amazing! Crazy good! So much so, that on the way home we stopped to get some more.
The Kahuku Land Farms fruit and vegetable stand is located just past the entrance to the Turtle Bay Resort on the way to Haleiwa. It’s well worth a stop.
The dive was a good one, with a maximum depth of thirty feet. We ran into three turtles, with two of them stopping to check us out.
Between the fire station and the water there is a makeshift home that a homeless woman has crafted in the lava formations. She has been there for quite a while — years, perhaps — and has done some pretty nice landscaping. So, maybe she isn’t really homeless. Maybe she has, instead, cracked the code that all us “home’d” people are still trying to solve. She certainly has one of the nicest views on the planet.
So, recommendations from today…
If you make a North Shore run, stop at Malaekahana State Recreation Area and wade to Goat Island, dive or snorkel at one of the three Pupukea dive spots (Shark’s Cove, Three Tables, Fire Station), and stop at Kahuku Land Farms for some of that crazy-good fried banana.
